Communication apparatus with relay function and relay method

ABSTRACT

A relaying apparatus relays an E-mail to a facsimile destination. The relaying apparatus stores a non-public mail address, which is accessible only by an authorized sender having authorization, and a public mail address, which is accessible to a sender regardless of authorization. A receiver receives the E-mail via a network, a recognizer recognizes a destination address from the received E-mail, and a determination section determines whether the recognized destination address is the non-public mail address or the public mail address. A converter converts the E-mail into a facsimile-format data, when the recognized destination mail address is determined to be the non-public mail address, a relaying section relays the converted facsimile-format data to the facsimile destination according to a facsimile procedure through a telephone network; and an output system outputs the E-mail, when the recognized destination address is determined to be the public mail address, without relaying the E-mail to another facsimile destination.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

[0001] This application is a continuation of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 09/088,712, filed Jun. 2, 1998, the contents of which areexpressly incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0002] 1. Field of the Invention

[0003] The present invention relates to relay apparatuses that can beinstalled in Internet facsimile equipment which transmits/receives imageinformation using E-mail over the Internet, and their relay method.

[0004] 2. Description of the Related Art

[0005] Facsimile apparatuses which transmit image information over theInternet using the same operations as in general facsimile equipmenthave been developed. Since these apparatuses use the Internet for theentire or part of their communication path, this type of facsimileapparatus is called “Internet facsimile.”

[0006] By placing the Internet facsimile at two Internet ends and usingthe relay function of the Internet facsimile, it is possible to achievecost reduction taking advantage of the Internet independent ofdifferences in distance. For example, E-mail data is sent to the nearestInternet facsimile of the G3FAX as the destination via the Internet andfrom the Internet facsimile it is transmitted to the destination G3FAXvia a public line.

[0007] When using the Internet facsimile as such a relay apparatus, theowner of the relay apparatus pays the communication expenses up to thedestination facsimile. Therefore, it is necessary to prevent the use ofthe Internet facsimile relay function without permission.

[0008] Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication No. 9-116728 is disclosedthat the password corresponding to a relay apparatus will be searchedfrom the relay apparatus list and encrypted and then E-mail with theencrypted password added will be sent, and the encrypted password addedto the received E-mail is decrypted and if it matches the password thatthe owner registered beforehand, the relay will be permitted.

[0009] However, the above relay system requires all apparatuses using arelay apparatus to be equipped with a mechanism to search the passwordof the relay apparatus and a mechanism to encrypt the searched password.As apparatuses without the password search mechanism and encryptionmechanism cannot use the relay apparatus, such a system has a demeritthat this system is available to only a limited number of users.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0010] The present invention has been implemented taking account of suchcircumstances. The objective of the present invention is to eliminatethe necessity of providing special mechanisms for apparatuses on thetransmitting side to prevent abuses of the relay apparatus byunauthorized users and provide a communication apparatus with a relayfunction and a relay method that allow only authorized users to use therelay apparatus by only inputting a secret relay mail address in theapparatus on the transmitting side.

[0011] The present invention provides a communication apparatus with arelay function comprising a recognition section that recognizes mailaddresses from the received E-mail data, memory that stores two kinds ofmail addresses for public use and relay use and control section thatexecutes the relay processing only when said recognized mail address isa relay mail address.

[0012] According to the present invention, relay mail addresses are keptin secret to anybody other than the users who are authorized to use thecommunication apparatus as a relay apparatus, and thus even if a publicmail address is disclosed as was previously, it can prevent unauthorizedusers from abusing them.

[0013] Furthermore, the password name is deleted from the mail addressduring the relay processing, and even when the header informationincluding the mail address is added to the facsimile data and sent tothe destination machine, it is possible to prevent the password frombeing displayed in a form of header information at the destinationterminal.

[0014] The Internet facsimile converts received E-mail data to data in aformat that renders it receivable by the facsimile apparatus andtransmits it to the destination terminal according to a facsimiletransmission procedure. Incorporating said communication apparatus onthis Internet facsimile allows said communication apparatus with a relayfunction to be used as an Internet facsimile relay apparatus, convertingE-mail to facsimile data and transmitting it to the facsimile apparatusvia a telephone line.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0015]FIG. 1 is a network configuration diagram of the Internetfacsimile related to an embodiment of the present invention used as arelay apparatus for data communications;

[0016]FIG. 2 is a diagram that shows the basic configuration of theInternet facsimile in the embodiment;

[0017]FIG. 3 is a functional diagram of the Internet facsimile in theembodiment;

[0018]FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram of the mail address table in theembodiment;

[0019]FIG. 5 is a configuration diagram of the mail address in theembodiment;

[0020]FIG. 6 is a configuration diagram of the domain name table in theembodiment; and

[0021]FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the relay procedure in theembodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0022] With reference now to the attached drawings, the embodiment ofthe present invention is explained in detail below:

[0023] As an operation example of the relay apparatus contained in theInternet facsimile related to the present embodiment, the followingdescribes a case where the transmit data is converted from an E-mailformat to a facsimile data format and transferred to the terminalfacsimile apparatus.

[0024]FIG. 1 shows a network configuration diagram of the relay systemusing the Internet facsimile in the present embodiment as a relayapparatus. In FIG. 1, Internet facsimile 11 or personal computer 12functions as a requesting terminal that uses Internet facsimile 14 as arelay apparatus and facsimile 15 functions as a destination terminalthat receives data replayed by Internet facsimile 14.

[0025] The data sent by E-mail from the requesting terminal (Internetfacsimile 11 or personal computer 12) is stored in mail server 13 viathe Internet. Internet facsimile 14 converts the E-mail collected frommail server 13 to data in a facsimile data format and transfers it tothe destination terminal (facsimile 15) via a telephone line network(PSTN: Public Switched Telephone Network) according to a facsimileprocedure.

[0026]FIG. 2 shows a schematic hardware configuration of Internetfacsimile 14 provided with a relay function. Internet facsimile 14comprises CPU 21, ROM 22, RAM 23, LAN interface unit 24, data storagesection 25, facsimile section 27, modem 28, network control unit 29, anda scanner and printer, etc. which are not shown in the figure.

[0027] CPU 21 executes various functions which will be described later,operating according to a program stored in ROM 22. RAM 23 stores datasuch as mail addresses and domain names required when it functions as arelay apparatus. LAN interface unit 24 executes the necessary procedurefor transmitting/receiving E-mail to/from the network, and data storagesection 25 is the memory that stores the received data temporarily.Facsimile section 27 transmits the data converted for facsimile andreceives facsimile data and stores it in data storage section 25. Modem28 modulates/demodulates data transmitted/received to/from the telephoneline, and network control unit 29 controls the telephone line.

[0028]FIG. 3 shows a functional section of the relay apparatusincorporated in Internet facsimile 14. CPU 21 provides various functionswhich will be described later by executing the relay program stored inROM 22.

[0029] Mail address recognition section 211 recognizes a mail addressfrom the E-mail data stored in data storage section 25 via LAN interfaceunit 24. Mail address collation section 212 collates the mail addressrecognized by mail address recognition section 211 with the relay mailaddress registered in mail address table 231 in RAM 23. If mail addresscollation section 212 proves that the mail address is a relay mailaddress, domain name recognition section 213 recognizes the domain nameof the requesting node from the data stored in data storage section 25.Domain name collation section 214 collates the domain name of therequesting node recognized by domain name recognition section 213 withthe domain name whose relay stored in domain name table 232 in RAM 23 ispermitted. When a relay permission signal is received from domain namecollation section 214, mail address edit section 215 extracts specificheader information from the E-mail data stored in data storage section25 and transmits it to format conversion section 26. In the case of thepresent embodiment, the specific header information contains relay mailaddresses without password names. When a relay permission signal isreceived from domain name collation section 214, log informationextraction section 216 extracts log information from the E-mail datastored in data storage section 25 and sends the log information to theadministrator mail address destination registered in administrator mailaddress table 233 in RAM 23. In the case of the present embodiment, thelog information contains relay mail addresses and domain names of therequesting node.

[0030] The memory space of RAM 23 includes mail address table 231,domain name table 232 and administrator mail address table 233. As shownin FIG. 4, mail address table 231 registers two kinds of mail addresses,public mail address and relay mail address. A relay is permitted whenthe mail address of the received E-mail data matches the relay mailaddress registered in mail address table 231.

[0031] As shown in FIG. 5A, a public mail address is made up of apassword name from the start to @ (at mark) and a host name following @.As shown in FIG. 5B, a relay mail address is made up of a password namefrom the start to # (sharp), a destination telephone number from #(sharp) to @ (at mark) and a host name following @.

[0032] Thus, using the password name of the relay mail address differentfrom the password name of the public mail address and making the relaymail address secret can prevent the relay mail address from being abusedeven if the public mail address is disclosed.

[0033]FIG. 6 shows the configuration of domain name table 233. As shownin FIG. 6, domain name table 233 in RAM 203 contains domain names forwhich the relay processing is permitted. The relay processing ispermitted as long as the same domain name of a requesting node in thereceived data is found in the registered domain names. This controlallows the security of the Internet facsimile used as the relayapparatus to be maintained.

[0034] Then, the relay operation of the relay system containing theInternet facsimile configured as shown above is explained using FIG. 7.FIG. 7 shows the relay procedure when Internet facsimile 14 is used asthe relay apparatus.

[0035] Here, two kinds of mail addresses (one for public and the otherfor relay), domain names for which the relay processing is permitted andmail address of the administrator are registered in each table in RAM 23beforehand.

[0036] When the relay request source, Internet facsimile 11 or personalcomputer 12, transmits E-mail whose relay mail address has beenregistered, the E-mail is stored in a mailbox of mail server 13 via theInternet.

[0037] Internet facsimile 14 collects the E-mail from mail server 13installed on the LAN via LAN interface unit 28 (S701). The receivedE-mail data collected from the network is stored in data storage section25 in the same E-mail format (S702).

[0038] Then, mail address recognition section 211 recognizes thedestination mail address from the received E-mail data stored in datastorage section 25 (S703). The recognized mail address is handed over tomail address collation section 212. Mail address collation section 212judges whether the mail address of the received E-mail is a public mailaddress or relay mail address (S704). Mail address collation section 212performs this judgment by comparing the password name at the mailaddress registered in mail address table 231 and the password nameregistered at the mail address of the received E-mail. If the passwordname is a public mail address, normal reception processing is performed(S705). That is, since it is data that needs not be relayed to otherapparatuses, it is printed out by a printer.

[0039] If the mail address is a relay mail address, domain namerecognition section 213 recognizes the domain name of the requestingnode from the received E-mail stored in data storage section 25 (S706).The recognized domain name is handed over to domain name collationsection 214. Domain name collation section 214 checks whether the domainname handed over from domain name recognition section 213 is found inthe domain names registered in domain name table 232 (S707).

[0040] Since only domain names of terminals for which the relay ispermitted are registered in domain name table 232, the data from therequesting node with the domain name that does not match the domain nameregistered in domain name table 232 is not relayed, resulting in anerror (S708). This prevents the Internet facsimile from being abused asthe relay apparatus without permission even in the case that the relaymail address is disclosed to users unauthorized to perform the relayprocessing. Furthermore, for reasons specific to relaying Internetfacsimile 14, if the number of domains available or domain name is to berestricted, arrangements can easily be made by only changing the domainname registered in domain name table 232.

[0041] On the other hand, if the same domain name of the requesting nodehas been registered in domain name table 232, the subsequent processingis taken over by mail address edit section 215. Mail address editsection 215 deletes the password name from the mail address the receivedE-mail data stored in data storage section 25 (S709). Header informationcontaining the mail address whose password name has been deleted iscreated (S710). This header information is handed over to formatconversion section 26.

[0042] Then, format conversion section 26 collects the received E-maildata from data storage section 25 and replaces the mail header with theheader information created by mail address edit section 215 and executesformat conversion (S711).Through format conversion, the received E-maildata is converted from an E-mail format to a facsimile data format. Evenif the header information is output from the destination terminal(facsimile apparatus), this prevents the password name of the relay mailaddress from being displayed, making it possible to maintain theconfidentiality of the relay mail address.

[0043] This facsimile data is buffered in transmission memory.Furthermore, the telephone number of the relay destination terminal(facsimile apparatus) inserted at the mail address of the receivedE-mail is stored in a prescribed area in RAM 23.

[0044] When facsimile section 27 receives the relay permission signalfrom CPU 21, it dials up the telephone number stored in the-prescribedarea in RAM 23, connects the line with the relay destination terminal bycontrolling modem 28 and network control unit 29 and transmits thefacsimile data to the connected terminal via a telephone line network(PSTN) (S712).

[0045] Simultaneously with the creation of the header information, loginformation consisting of a mail address, requesting node domain name,etc. is created (S713) and said log information is E-mailed to the mailaddress of the administrator (S714).

[0046] This helps the Internet facsimile administrator control thesituation, for example, investigate the frequency of use, improving thelevel of administrative convenience. It also allows the administrator tomonitor the use of the apparatus as the relay apparatus every time therelay processing is performed and immediately discover any abuse orabnormal use of the apparatus by checking the transmissionsource/destination and quickly take appropriate action, thus improvingthe security performance.

[0047] Through notification by E-mail each time, describing thetransmission source mail address and destination telephone number, etc.according to the subject of the mail makes it possible to know the wholesituation of relay processing clearly without opening the mail.

[0048] In the network configuration example shown in FIG. 1, theInternet facsimile and mail server are located in the LAN, but it isalso possible to configure the system so that the Internet facsimile mayhave direct dial-up connections with the mail server located on theInternet.

[0049] In the explanation above, the relay mail address must always bedescribed in the following format including a private password:

[0050] Password#transfer destination telephone number@domain name

[0051] On the other hand, the standardized relay mail address isdescribed in the following format including a fixed form statement whichindicates that it is a relay mail address. The fixed form portionspecified by the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) is “FAX=” andsince it follows a standardized procedure, everybody can know it.

[0052] Fixed form portion=transfer destination telephone number@domainname

[0053] When carrying out relay processing by recognizing thestandardized relay mail address, the mail is transferred to thetelephone number entered between “=” after the fixed form statement and“@”. No processing for restricting the users described in the aboveembodiment is performed.

[0054] The Internet facsimile is configured so that each user may selectthe relay (special relay) that restricts users by recognizing the relaymail addresses containing private passwords or relay (general relay)that does not restrict users by recognizing standardized relay mailaddresses. The Internet facsimile is provided with both the function toperform the special relay and the function to perform the general relaydescribed in said embodiment, and either one is enabled according to theuser setting. This setting is implemented by adding it to the facsimilegeneral setting items.

[0055] This Internet facsimile allows the relay apparatus side to selecta desired relay method.

[0056] Furthermore, it can also be configured so that the mail addressrecognition section may recognize the type of the relay mail address andexecute a special relay if it is a relay mail address for special relayand a general relay if it is a relay mail address for general relay.

[0057] Industrial Applicability

[0058] As described above, the facsimile data relay apparatus related tothe present invention is effective in relaying E-mail received from thenetwork by the Internet facsimile via a telephone line to a facsimile(G3FAX), which is suitable for enhancement of the mechanism and securityon the transmitting side.

What is claimed is:
 1. A relaying apparatus that relays an E-mail to afacsimile destination, the relaying apparatus storing a non-public mailaddress, which is accessible only by an authorized sender havingauthorization, and a public mail address, which is accessible to asender regardless of authorization, the relaying apparatus comprising: areceiver that receives the E-mail via a network; a recognizer thatrecognizes a destination address from the received E-mail; adetermination section that determines whether the recognized destinationaddress is the non-public mail address or the public mail address; aconverter that converts the E-mail into a facsimile-format data, whenthe recognized destination mail address is determined to be thenon-public mail address; a relaying section that relays the convertedfacsimile-format data to the facsimile destination according to afacsimile procedure through a telephone network; and a printer thatprints the E-mail, when the recognized destination address is determinedto be the public mail address, without relaying the E-mail to anotherfacsimile destination, whereby when the E-mail is sent to the publicmail address, the E-mail data is conveyed to a user of the relayingapparatus, and when the E-mail is sent to the non-public mail address,the E-mail data is conveyed to a user of the facsimile destination. 2.The relaying apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the public mailaddress includes a first password name and a host name, and thenon-public mail address includes a second password name, which isdifferent from the first password name, a destination telephone numberindicating a telephone number of the facsimile destination and the hostname.
 3. The relaying apparatus according to claim 1, furthercomprising: a recognizer that recognizes a sender domain name containedin the E-mail; and a comparing section that compares the recognizedsender domain name with a preregistered domain name, wherein therelaying is performed only when the recognized domain name agrees withthe preregistered domain name.
 4. The relaying apparatus according toclaim 1, further comprising: a transmitter that transmits loginformation including the destination address of the relayed E-mail andinformation regarding the sender of the relayed E-mail to a mail addressof a manager of the relaying apparatus.
 5. The relaying apparatusaccording to claim 1, wherein the relaying apparatus further stores apublic relay address, which is accessible to the sender regardless ofthe authorization, the relaying apparatus further comprising: a selectorthat selects one of the non-public mail address and the public relayaddress to be enabled; wherein the determination section determineswhether the recognized destination mail address is the selected one ofthe non-public mail address and the public relay address; and theconverter converts the E-mail when the recognized destination mailaddress is the selected one of the non-public mail address and thepublic relay address.
 6. The relaying apparatus according to claim 5,wherein the public relay address includes a predetermined templateportion, the destination telephone number and a domain name.
 7. Arelaying apparatus that relays an E-mail to a facsimile destination, therelaying apparatus storing a non-public mail address, which isaccessible only by an authorized sender having authorization, and apublic mail address, which is accessible to a sender regardless ofauthorization, the relaying apparatus comprising: a receiver thatreceives the E-mail via a network; a recognizer that recognizes adestination address from the received E-mail; a determination sectionthat determines whether the recognized destination address is thenon-public mail address or the public mail address; a converter thatconverts the E-mail into a facsimile-format data, when the recognizeddestination mail address is determined to be the non-public mailaddress; a relaying section that relays the converted facsimile-formatdata to the facsimile destination according to a facsimile procedurethrough a telephone network; and an output system that outputs theE-mail, when the recognized destination address is determined to be thepublic mail address, without relaying the E-mail to another facsimiledestination.